“Welcome to the world of brand-enhancing, profit-making, tax-paying philanthropy. Its proponents argue that we’ve become so accustomed to the idea that philanthropy has to operate within the confines of certain legal strictures that we’ve lost sight of what really matters: the good you foster, not necessarily how you go about fostering it.”
Tag: 12.11.06
Study: Night Owls Are More Creative
Get most of your best work done late at night? You’re probably more creative than those who go to bed early. “Scientists can’t yet fully explain why evening types appear to be more creative, but they suggest it could be an adaptation to living outside of the norm.”
Will W’s Oils Fetch This Much?
“A Moroccan landscape by Sir Winston Churchill fetched £612,500 in auction at Sotheby’s today. The figure was far in excess of the painting’s estimated price tag of £250,000.”
Calatrava’s Twizzler Tower
Santiago Calatrava has substantially altered his proposal for a spiraling, 2,000-foot Chicago skyscraper. “With the needle-thin broadcast antenna gone and its airspace replaced by sellable condo space, this is practically a whole new building,” Blair Kamin writes. “At root, the question about the revised plan (which now stands at 160 stories rather than the 150 the developer announced last week) is this: Has Calatrava turned new functional and financial requirements to his advantage — or has he sold out the integrity of the original design?”
OJ’s Book Finds Buyers
OJ Simpson’s book may have been scrubbed by the publisher, but already-printed copies are leaking ou. “Two major online marketplaces for new and used books, Alibris.com and Biblio.com, removed listings for the book Friday after it was offered at prices up to $5,499. And eBay, the online auction site, has removed at least eight listings, the latest Tuesday. At least one early eBay listing went undetected, and the book sold for $50.”
Why The Getty Is Giving Back To Greece
The museum agreed Monday to return two antiquities. “The pivotal factor leading to the pact… was a dossier of evidence presented to the Getty’s lawyers in October indicating that the statue and wreath were illegally spirited out of Greece before the museum bought them in 1993 for about $4.4 million.”
V & A – How Do You Rehang An Encyclopedia?
The Victoria & Albert Museum “has been opening the first galleries in its £110 million plan to re-display its entire collection, a transformation that is both necessary and welcome, but which has made a lot of people in the art world uneasy.”
The Eccentric Art Maven
Louise McBain has bought a number of art magazines. “Unlike other art-world players, who are at least occasionally spotted in galleries and museums, MacBain rarely goes to see art. She zips into art-world stops like Art Basel and the Venice Biennale on her private jet for press conferences about her new business plans and acquisitions, sometimes making speeches with autocues. As the art-media business loses money, it has become boring to her.”
Business Of The Bible
“The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles–twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book.”
Thief Arrested At Hermitage Museum
A man has been arrested trying to steal silver from the Hermitage. “An unknown man broke a glass showcase in the Hermitage’s applied arts hall to steal a 19th-century silver chalice, setting off an alarm. The alarm went off, and the Hermitage’s security service detained the offender.”